Victory over the British did nothing to eliminate the many internal conflicts
afflicting the new nation. Foreign policy concerns, debtor/creditor conflicts,
and trade wars brought the confederated states to the brink of ruin. In the
face of all this, delegates from the states met in Philadelphia to craft a new
plan of government.

More Deadly than War: the Smallpox Epidemic

Between 1775 and 1782  the exact years of the Revolutionary War 
a smallpox epidemic devastated broad sections of the population North
America.

Hundreds of the enslaved Virginias who joined the British army and Governor
Dunmore at the start of the war to escape slavery were affected. Continental
soldiers were affected as well as British soldiers, especially in cities like
Boston, Quebec, and Charleston. The Spanish-speaking settlers of Spanish, African,
and Indian ancestry who founded the village called Our Lady of the Angels (today,
Los Angeles) were plagued by the smallpox epidemic as well. From the Atlantic
to the Pacific, the smallpox virus took more than 130,000 North American lives,
a substantially larger number than those who lost their lives on the battlefields
during the Revolution (25,000). The North Americans who suffered the most losses
as a result of the epidemic were Native Americans.

Postwar Problems

After the Revolutionary War, the lives of many North Americans had been profoundly
disrupted if not destroyed by an eight year long war and smallpox epidemic.
With the aid of France (and Spain), the Continental army and militias had defeated
Britain, the worlds greatest superpower at that time. With Britain's defeat,
America become the first colony to successfully challenge its colonial master
and become an independent nation (Haiti would be the second). While the Treaty
of Paris signaled an enormous victory of profound historical importance 
the symbolic triumph of freedom and democracy  the reality
of post revolutionary North American society was very problematic.

At the start of the American Revolution, African Americans composed 1/5 (20%)
of the American population (the largest proportion in American history, today
the 36 million Americans who listed themselves as Black on the US census represent
13% of the entire population). After the revolution, many African Americans
had escaped from servitude (see website on black loyalists), won their freedom
through military service, or been freed by masters who saw a conflict between
slavery and the Revolutions rhetoric of equality. But half
a million people remained legally enslaved. After the Revolution, slavery was
no longer legal in the northern states. In 1785 New Yorkers John Jay and Alexander
Hamilton joined like-minded citizens to form a Society for the Promotion
of the Manumission of Slaves; Quakers in Pennsylvania had long called for
an end to slavery and abolitionist sentiment led by black and white intellectuals
and religious leaders grew in some quarters (see the Narrative of Equiano
or the case of Elizabeth Freeman on p. 281). The Northwest Ordinance outlawed
slavery north of the Ohio River. Still, without ever using the words slavery
or slave the US Constitution protected the institution of slavery.
The framers of the Constitution also approved provisions protecting the slave
trade for the next twenty years and denying protection to fugitive slaves. Appallingly,
slave-holding southern delegates prevailed in both maintaining the legality
of regarding enslaved persons as personal property as well as gained even more
political power though the notorious three-fifths clause.
White veterans of the Continental Army were extremely frustrated in the face
of the governments failure to give them their pay and at times seemed
on the brink of a military coup (see p. 258 & 260).

Whereas some wealthy whites increased their fortunes through war speculation
(taking advantage of the difficulties of a wartime economy, like stocking up
on rare goods and selling them dear), many non-elite whites suffered
under the wartime and post-war economies. The majority of citizens, faced
with rising debts and economic downturn, resented the heavy taxes needed to
pay interest on debts to wealthy speculators. In 1786-1787 Shays
Rebellion broke out when large numbers of farmers and small property
owners were unable to pay their debts and taxes in the hard currency demanded
by the government and merchants.

In 1783, as the Continental army was demobilized, army officers established
theSociety of the Cincinnati (named
for the Roman general Cincinnatus). Only officers could join and membership
was hereditary. The Cincinnati exerted a good deal of political pressure. Critics
were concerned that the organization was meant to plant the seeds of a self-perpetuating
elite ruling class or aristocracy.

After the Revolution, the Confederations Continental (national) Congress
in Philadelphia had a restless army to pay, a weak government to reform, and
tremendous war debts to confront. They imposed taxes to pay off war bonds purchased
by wealthy speculators; veterans and farmers protested that Congress was gouging
the many to enrich the few. When representatives of the many pressured
state governments to provide debt relief and issue paper money, wealthy creditors
reacted forcefully. Like-minded men maneuvered to create a new, much stronger
central government that could support their economic interests and override
state-level economic measures that favored the common people.

Sidestepping the existing government (established by the Articles of Confederation
drafted by the Continental Congress in 1777 and ratified in 1781), the elite
members of Congress drafted a new constitution at a closed convention in Philadelphia
in 1787, which they managed to get ratified in 1788. There was no public discussion
or official record of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention (which
was preceded by a secret meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati). The
55 delegates had much in common. All were white, male, and well educated, and
many already knew one another. Theses members of the national elite included
34 lawyers, 30 public creditors, and 27 members of the Society of the Cincinnati.
More than a quarter of the participants owned slaves .all seemed to agree
that the contagion of liberty had spread too far (Jones p. 277-278).

From English Colonists to Americans: A New National Culture

In spite the many regional, class, and ideological differences and the conflicting
interests that separated Americans, many sought to create a new shared national
culture and identity in the wake of the Revolution. Citizens were no longer
Englishmen in America; now they were Americans (formerly a term reserved exclusively
for Indians). Many Americans strove to match that which they admired about European
culture while rejecting and separating themselves from those aspects of European
(English) culture against which they had fought.

Just as the French would do after the French Revolution, Americans changed
public names (of streets, counties, colleges) that referenced the old
regime or its royalty. For example, Dunmore County, Virginia (named for the
British appointed governor, Lord Dunmore) was renamed Shenandoah (based on an
Indian name). Bostons King Street became State Street. Whereas the British,
who had contested Spains claims to North America, downplayed the significance
of Christopher Columbus, Americans now saw the word Columbia as
a symbol of their break from Britain. In 1786, South Carolina named their new
state capital Columbia. Five years later, in 1789, supporters of the proposed
national capital christened it the District of Columbia. New York Citys
Kings College became Columbia College (later Columbia University). Noah
Webster established the American language in his American Spelling Book
in 1783 and his American Dictionary first published in 1828. Plough became
plow, theatre became theater, colour became color, etc.

Geographic Expansion

After Pontiacs Rebellion, the Proclamation Line of 1763 had dammed
up colonial expansion for two decades. After the Revolutionary War, Americans
migrated westward by the thousands. In the decade after the war, woodsman Daniel
Boone worked as a surveyor for migrants in the trans-Appalachian region of Virginia
that became Kentucky in 1792. However, Native Americans in both the Old
Southwest and Old Northwest were an obstacle to
American settlement. American delegations drafted treaties with Native American
nations, asserting the right of the new US government to Indian lands. The
Congress of the recently established confederation government instructed these
negotiators to deal with the Native Americans as dependents rather than equals,
calling them children rather than brothers. The treaty makers even took hostages
to force the Indians to accept their terms. Ordinary Americans sealed these
claims with a surge of migration into western Pennsylvania and beyond
(Jones p. 267).

The Land Ordinance of 1785 (the basis of which was drawn up by Thomas
Jefferson before he replaced Benjamin Franklin as the American minister to France)
called for surveyors to layout townships in grids. The legislation was meant
to help systemize and organize how land would be legally claimed by individuals.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 determined how land north of the Ohio
River would be governed and prohibited slavery there (as well as fugitive slaves).
The ordinance increased property requirements for citizens who wanted to vote
or hold office. Most members of Congress feared the prospect of democratic governance
and local control in the Old Northwest so they provided for the appointment
of territorial officials. These changes benefited eastern land speculators most,
some whom were members of Congress.

American Citizenship

Despite the elite's efforts to limit the political power of non-elites, American
citizens were given substantial rights and privileges that were legally protected
in the Constitutions Bill of Rights. Notwithstanding the elite
compromises that helped to produce the Constitution and how it has been interpreted
in the past, the US Constitution is the most enduring and most successful
constitution in history. Remarkably, with the ratification of the Constitution,
property ownership was no longer a universal voting requirement. States
varied on whether religion, race, or gender could determine eligibility. Non-elite
men who were white and Christian enjoyed rights historically reserved for the
elite. Most African-Americans, Native Americans, and women of all ethnic backgrounds
were excluded from these citizenship rights.